ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to suggest some new roles for educational psychologists. Traditionally, educational psychologists have worked in college and university environments with the usual teaching and research responsibilities of such faculty; they have also assumed special instructional functions in teacher education programs at the undergraduate level. The new roles described fall into two categories: Positions in elementary and secondary schools with consultative and staff development functions, and Consultative/administrative functions in industry and social agencies for which educational psychologists are uniquely qualified. Virtually all schools have at least some computer assisted instruction. Improving students' comprehension is, therefore, an important aim at all educational levels. With respect to reading comprehension, metacognition refers to students' ability to monitor how well they understand what they read. Schools should also introduce computer managed instruction, in which formative evaluation and instructional sequencing is conducted with the help of computers while learning and teaching occur without computer assistance.